Tuesday, December 12, 2006

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Mandatory Images

God loves images, sacred images, as much as He abhors idolatrous images. And, not only does He love sacred images, He orders that they be made following his precise instructions!

The following is part of the orders He gave Moses: “….Let them cover both sides of the propitiatory, spreading their wings, and covering the oracle, and let them look one towards the other, their faces being turned towards the propitiatory wherewith the ark is to be covered”. (Exodus 25: 20)

And He granted images such importance as to make them His exclusive way of communication: "Thencewill I give orders, and will speakto theeover the propitiatory, and from the midst of the two cherubims, which shall be upon the ark of the testimony,all things which I will command the children of Israel by thee". God, in this way, emphasized the role of images as a means of sacred communication, and established why most images had to be forbidden as unfit to uplift the human spirit towards him. Sacred images would have to wait for the Crucifix to fully carry the message of God's love in HIS godly way.God commanded images to be made, and in Exodus 37 we have the way the order was carried out, and even the name of the artist, Beseleel, a human artist. Greater things were on the way, so great that His power would create images, the same power that created the universe would establish His images amongst us: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: That he might redeem them who were under the law: that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:4-5) And the fulness of time in its due would give us two images. The first from 33 A.D. was to be known as the Holy Shrowd of Turin (see link). The second image, from 1531 was Mary, His Mother, Our Lady of Guadalupe.

To confirm Catholic dogma it would no longer be Moses or the Bible alone to bear testimony, it would be the Powerful Convergence of the Earth, the Sky, the Bible, and the Discovery of America converging in their testimony. A convergence of such power as only God can muster to carry His message. To show His Love, His wisdom, to uphold His Church, to fulfill His Will, to back His warnings.

Such Image’s power of convergence had to be rooted in Genesis 3:15 to unveil to the rebellious without further appeal the identity pertaining to the Messianic Promise: to identify the Woman, to identify Her Seed. In the promise they are a single promise, in The Sacred Image they had to be one too, and the Virgin of Guadalupe’s image is that of a mother about to give birth. All this, again, with God’s testimony as guaranteed by a power of convergence which can only be His own. Thus, the Sacred Image of Guadalupe whose power of convergence we saw credited by Genesis in my previous blog: Genesis, as Science, Superb!

She made it clear by choosing a shipwreck to stay in America that it was Christianity’s Reformation Shipwreck being prepared by the dark forces of the world, and which were to erupt 25 years later with Luther in Europe that had sent Her to take possession of Her Continent (see previous blog). "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman, who brought forth the man child: And there were given to the woman two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the desert unto her place, where she is nourished for a time and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent". (Rev. 12: 13-14) Those same wings appear at the feet of Our Lady of Guadalupe: the angel upholds Her for all to see in this Chapter 12 which refers to Mexico, fulfilling Scripture to perfection and in a way so astounding as to leave us speechless!

And the Sacred Image of Guadalupe was worded in Apocalypse before it’s miraculous appearance in Mexico: And a great sign appeared in heaven: A woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars: And being with child, she cried travailing in birth, and was in pain to be delivered(Rev. 12:1-2) This parragraph was fulfilled by Mexico’s liberator, a Catholic priest, Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla on official records. Costilla is the Spanish for rib recalling Genesis again!

As a Catholic priest Hidalgo y Costilla was a full representative of Mary of Guadalupe to her people. Crying out from a church steeple while ringing the bell to awaken the populace in what Mexican History calls The Cry of Independence, ---officially commemorated every 15th of September in Mexico at 11:00 PM--- while holding to the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe as one who cries out in her name, he was unconsciously fullfiling Rev. 12:1.This Cry of Independence was remarkable to the point of being scandalous to historian José Vasconcelos, a detractor of Hidalgo, who remarked: "All civilized nations have signed a statute of independence, only our incivility could give way to having a Cry of Independence instead! And it is a fact that only Mexico is apocaliptic in this regard, as no other nation has a "Cry of Independence", something never envisioned by Vasconcelos who was thinking only of good manners!

Hidalgo was the priest of the town of Dolores, meaning Sorrows, or Pains in Spanish (Rev.12:1 again) as She was with her Mexicans in pain to be delivered from a Spanish new rule under the Bourbons, who had taken over the throne from the Hapsburgs, and were attacking Her and Her own since 1767 when Charles III of Spain expelled the Jesuits out of all Spanish dominions attempting to do so with all religious orders. All of these were and are signs.To leave no doubt as to prophesy being fulfilled, after the declaration of war by the Bourbons in 1767 there were three Mexican Independence Attempts, all fell on a September 15th (1774, 1808 y 1810), the day commemorating Our Lady of Sorrows (or pains). All of them coinciding unplanned, by mere chance! Shall we call it that? To top it, Mexico is the only country in the world that celebrates its Independence Days, consecutive days, every 15th and 16th of September.

On the 15th and 16th of September 1571, Mexico commemorated its first 50 years of Colonial Rule (1521-1571), and 4o years (1531-1571) of the Apparitions of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City to a humble indian, Juan Diego. But the main commemoration took place elsewhere, in the Gulf of Lepanto!

She was there, in an image traditionally attributed to an indian copyist named Marcos. This Image---originaly sent by Montufar then Archbishop of Mexico to the Crown--- finaly became a gift from don John of Austria to Admiral Andrea Doria. And Cardinal Doria, a descendant of his built a chapel for the town's patroness---Our Lady of Guadalupe---in Santo Stefano d'Aveto, traditionaly a Doria town near Genoa to house this, her mexican image in 1801. She was there when the full Christian Armada's 225 ships took two days to depart for battle against the 273 ships of the Mohammedan Turks. On the 15th of September Doria weighed anchors, and raising the flag of Christ crucified set out for battle. This flag had, humbled at Christ's feet the coats of arms of the Pope, of King Philip II of Spain, of the Republic of Venice, and of Don Juan of Austria. On the 16th. Don Juan followed in bearing the flag of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Remember Mexico was then a Spanish colony known as Nueva España (New Spain).

The victory of Lepanto was to signal the downfall of the up to then invincible Turk at sea, and was to be sung joyfully in Europe for decades, with all the arts competing in praise.

But Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was not out to commemorate a 15th and 16th of September that had taken place more than two hundred years earlier. As far as we know he was not even aware of that aniversary. He was on the move as he had been denounced to the Colonial authorities. He had no plans for such dates except most probably to say devout mass on that festivity of our Lady of Sorrows, being, as he was, his chaplain in the town of Sorrows (Dolores). The plans were from above: God makes His ways manifest speaking His Historical continuation of His Word as His single Trinitarian Will. And His single Trinitarian Will is in history to be admired: Christ preached the three years of His Public Life, suffered for three Hours on the Cross, Resurrected on the Third Day. We have seen most trinitarian Columbus discover America with three ships in a single trip to have Rodrigo of Thrice Anne’s "Tierra a la Vista" (Land on sight). Hernán Cortés conquered Mexico in 1521, and Mexico’s only Colonial Period was to last exactly three centuries up to 1821. Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla fulfilling prophesy in September 15th of 1810, started the War of Independence. A precise fulfillment in 1810 to put a precise ending to three centuries of Spanish Colonial Rule in 1821 with Iturbide.

So history has told us much more than all of history's actors could see in their way to fame!

We have seen Our Lady of Guadalupe in a way different from Juan Diego's, but out of Juan Diego himself none of Her devoted children has seen Our Heavenly mother so fully as we have, and shall now continue to see Her both, from a full historical point of view, and from the point of view of convergences so powerful as to be God's own signature leading our way.

The Heavens Converge

Something extraordinary happened in Mexico in the brief span of ten years, from 1531 to 1541. The ten previous years had been an Indian tragedy whose lamentations ring through history. They had suffered the loss of their gods, their independence, and their future. They no longer clung to life, nor planned for a future no longer theirs.

Sickness, the plagues, decimated them many times over as was to be expected in heroic tragedies for a proud, civilized, and never before defeated nation which clung more to the lost values of their abolished world than to life. Then, suddenly, everything changed! Not only were they suddenly up and running again, but had finally accepted their new situation as if it had become a blessing! The friars which had found their job so difficult, and unsuccessful, began baptizing more than a million Indians a year. Mexico was fully Christian by the end of that decade, and more willing to fight and die for this new faith than they had ever been before.

Of course Juan Diego preached to his own, but unless you are willing to grant him a greatercompetence as a preacher than you are willing to grant the 13 apostles---by including St. Paul as the thirteenth---and all the disciples put together, you'll have to look elsewhere for theexplanation! Because while Greeks and Romans were amenable to Christian preachers, theAztecs were not! They had preferred to let themselves die! Only Juan Diego (and his uncle Juan Bernardino) saw the Virgin directly, but pilgrim caravans of thousands of Indians in a steady downpour to her shrine in Mexico City saw the humble ayate where she had left her picture!

What they saw convinced them all, and the Spanish Catholic Mission to Mexico broke all records as the fastest evangelization ever! We are still discovering what they saw, or trying to! One thing was clear to the Indian mind: the message from heaven was for them! What they saw they had not taught the Spaniards who were a race unwilling to learn from them, and which would have felt humiliated by the mere thought of learning anything from them. Fully satisfied with what they had and were, the Spaniards were set upon material endeavours of conquerors newly rich with an empire of new and astounding possibilities!

The indians had the guaranty by the Spanish despisal of their culture contrasting with her image so full of their own symbols that the message was from Heaven. God had not abandoned them, he had sent a foe to enrich them! And their new found enthusiasm built more Christian churches at less cost than many nations had ever had in Europe.

We, as historians, or at least as history’s beneficiaries look back and wonder at another convergence: present knowledge of these marvels and the technology to explore them.

The first thing to wonder at from our Bibles standpoint refers to Holy Mary of Guadalupe’s crown. Her image has none, yet, it should have! Remember: "...and on her head a crown of twelve stars".

A moderndiscovery came in 1951, when a photographer named Carlos Salinas found an image in Her eye from a photograph he had taken, the equivalent of Secondo Pia’s discovery, also through photography, of the Holy Shroud of Turin being a perfect negative of the Lord’s Passion in 1897 (see my link to The Holy Shrowd of Turin in this web page). The Mexican’s discovery led to ophthalmologists finding a perfect Purkinje-Samson reflection in Her eyes, something that no painter could even imagine, or manage to paint. It was something that could only be found in a living eye!

Later on, computer’s and scanners would discover further marvels, but it's not Her eyes we are discussing except as an introduction, since it was from then on that Her image would capture interest from all types of researchers.

The finest days for research began with a priest 25 years ago, Fr. Mario Rojas Sánchez.

He was a full flagged expert on the Aztec civilization, its language and customs. And he had a first rate associate in Homero Hernández Illescas who, besides his private practice as a respected full time medical doctor specialized in immunology, had always been, since childhood, a most talented amateur astronomer, and was also an art expert. Both have passed away. Of what follows the merit is theirs alone, it was their field not mine, and I hope not to let them down with my incipient knowledge of astronomy; so, I will take not their wisdom but a bare comon-sensical detour benefiting from what they wrote, and what I heard from them.

Fr. Rojas had always been intrigued by the ornaments in Our Lady’s dress. They looked to everyone as vegetation ornaments, flowers or leaves; but to the expert he was they were ‘tepetls’ in the nahuatl language of the Aztecs. Hills in English. Could hills have been part of the message the indians understood immediately? But if they were, what were they doing in Her dress? To complicate things, he knew that tepetls, having always a similar look as required by icons, were, by each iconographer presented in such a different way as the trade permitted for the individual tlacuilo to be recognized as theartist of his masterpiece . So, the only way to find out would not be bookish, but experimental research. In other words, he would superimpose them on a map of the Valley of Mexico.

A 'tepetl' symbol´ on her dress.

A leaf, a flower, or hills?

He almost lost hope. All attempts failed! If you don’t believe in miracles you can call it serendipity coming to his aid. It was while giving a conference together with Homero Hernández on the Image of Our Lady, and his up to then fruitless efforts of adjusting supposed tepetlsymbols to real tepetl maps that two large transparencies being used with a simple projector fell to the floor. On bending to pick them up, they found them well adjusted but on a different map. on the national map of Mexico. That much larger is her outline imprint.

Success breeds more optimism for greater success! The immediate question was: what about the stars on her mantle? And doctor Hernández seemed born for the job. The place to look was equally simple, the December skies over Mexico City. The Holy Virgin had appeared to this humble Indian, Juan Diego, on December 12th 1531 by the Julian Calendar (22nd December of our actual Gregorian Calendar). To an indian whose low social standing made him always feel inadequate for the simple task of carrying messages. She promised to make him famous. And the promise was acquiring heavenly proportions beyond the mystical sphere, all the way into the cosmological sphere!The 'tepetls' set the way! They imposed a horizontal position with her head touching the Gulf of Mexico, and her feet close to the Pacific Ocean. A fine fit for the cross-section of a ship her image resembles--the Ark--when her sun rays are included. Homero Hernández knew immediately the northern constelations were to be found on her right side cope, and the southern constelations on her left. But the poetry would be in between. Framed by the visible stars, Corona Borealis on her front; Virgo (the Virgin) over her heart; Leo, to represent the Lion of Judah over her pregnant womb; Gemini, the Twins, on her knees; Orion, the giant, superimposed on the angel whose eagle-wings sustain her for flight to the desert as foretold by Rev. 12: 13-14.

Both images from "Las Estrellas del Manto de la Virgen de Guadalupe" byFr. Mario Rojas Sánchez and Homero Hernández Illescas.Here we can see the 'tepetl' symbols on her full dress, and constellations adjusted to her cope.On this position, northern constellations appear north.In the eighties, just beginning, they didn’t have PC's or free software. Star atlases and a Spitz Junior Planetarium would suffice. The immediate solution to our problem became obvious, remember?: "...and on her head a crown of twelve stars". Could it be they were not 12 on her head (Corona Borealis has seven) because they were as constellations already on her cope? There are precisely twelve Constellations in the traditional Zodiac! And here the only clue is in the number 12, and on the much earlier dating of their zodiacal names, and their also previous---by centuries---incorporationto the Zodiac as we shall see.

The Zodiac's constellations appear on a 16º belt, or band, centered on the ecliptic which follows the sun's apparent yearly motion. These constellations, or signs, each taken to extend 30º of longitude are:Aries 0º; Taurus 30º; Gemini 60º; Cancer 90º; Leo 120º; Virgo 150º; Libra 180º; Scorpius 210º; Sagitarius 240º; Capricornius 270º; Aquarius 300º; and Pisces 330º. There can be no fiddling or cheating, Constellations are too large to be represented as a Crown, but 46 stars fit well on the cope, and the exchange is magnificent beyond description!

They had been led by intuition from the beginning, but by now they had learnt. From the Gospel, of the twelve we know much of very few of them, four of them basically, from the other eight a word or two! From the tribes of Israel, out of Judah, they finally disappeared leaving more mystery than notice! As far as the tepetls were concerned, well, a sufficient amount had coincided but a trade-off between good looking symmetry, and geographical precision, had to explain having more parts to fit-in than a need for them! An analogous situation was to be expected with the constellations on her cope, but, in the words of Homero Hernández Illescas: All the stars, though somewhat compressed, are thus identified and in place. They are the 46 most brilliant stars on the skies of the Valley of Mexico. Resuming: The extraordinary distribution of the stars on the Virgin's cope can't be mere chance, as no random distribution can show precisely as a whole, all the constellations in the sky at a given moment. As a comparaison, an iconographic study by the author of 150 paintings of The Virgin of Guadalupe dating from the XVII and XVIII centuries, resulted in not a single copy on the which the constellations appearing in the ayate of the indian Juan Diego and the skies of Mexico could be recognized.Here we have the constellations on her cope by name. Some names are in Spanish, as my lack of ability with photoshop has forced me to pospone translation on the image itself. I managed to put Canes V(enatici) instead of Lebreles and the Coma to Berenice into the image. Here's the rest in the mostly latin proper to starmaps: Boyero = Boötes; Osa Mayor = Ursa Maior; Dragón = Draco; Cochero = Auriga; Tauro (Taurus); Ofiuco = Ophiucus; Escorpión = Scorpius; Lobo = Lupus; Centauro = Centaurus; Cruz del Sur = Crux; Sirio = Sirius ( a star).As we can see from the original 12 only Taurus and Scorpius appear on her cope. Leo, Virgo and Gemini will appear in a different sequence.What follows is very important: The Aztecs were better astronomers than the Spaniards at the time of the conquest; they had a more precise calendar than the Julian calendar, and were ritualy expecting two things: the yearly solstice and the 'Fifth Sun'. Supposing correctly that Our Lady appeared on the solstice as the expected Fifth Sun for a new Era, he looked for the stars on her cope to agree with the precise solstice of 1531 which took place at 10:39 A.M. But, the visible poetry in the skies began earlier; that's why we present an earlier take at 4:15, as a preview to the solstice at10:39 A.M of December 12 1531. Day 2280600.5 of the Julian Calendar.Virgin's image from "La Virgen de Guadalupe y las Estrellas" by Homero Herández Illescas.

The starmap above from 'Cartes du Ciel' (Sky Charts) which is generously offered asfreeware, corresponds to the Mexico City coordinates on December 12 of 1531 at 4:15 AM. Here we have the constellations which do not appear on her cope, but happen to be the main ones for her identification: Her crown "Corona Borealis"; Virgo: The Virgin over her heart; Leo, The Lion of Juda from Genesis over her pregnancy; Gemini, The Twins over her knees; and Orion, the Giant over the angel which sustains her. As can be seen they are not perfectly aligned as Corona and Orion are not on the ecliptic. However, Hernández Illescas' genius had solved all the problems that have traditionally plagued map makers working on geographical or celestial proyections. He did it by reflecting a convex image on a concave mirror without the absurd harasment of presenting the complex math to millions of devout but mathematically incompetent fans. The final result and the miracle involved in the tradeoff between the math and artistic symetry.

As is obvious, the small area represented by the 'tepetl' image placed horizontaly with the one I rotated 90º left to add it again below, and which covers aproximately one hundred thousand square miles of mexican territory on the map shown, require the 180º celestial meridian to be very compressed (pulled in towards the vertical of the image. When this is done they adjust to the vertical as shown below.

My line of reasoning is much simpler and is a direct follow-on my own discoveries presented in the contiguous blog Genesis, as science, Superb! Of my own---as will be the case with most intelligent readers wanting to form a personal opinion on this subject---a hollistic approach can be stronger, and can eliminate the need to put each and every star on the precise place of her cope. I never felt frustrated by the Italian boot not having a precise leather replica in a shop window. All this was recognized by Homero Hernández. Like my findings, detectable shapes lead to unmistakeable recognition, and in cases like this to unimpeachable discovery. He followed up by comparing every painting of Our Lady of Guadalupe to the original and was amply rewarded: not one offered the slightest similitude! And with the stars on her cope you'll be convinced of miracles precisely because they strike a balance between absolute precision and good looking art. Looking at her cope nobody detected asymetries which could point to something different of a symetrical distribution, yet, there they were! And that is even more of a challenge from a manufacturing standpoint than absolute precision. In other words: it is this most difficult trade-off between art and precision without damage to recognizeability that is fully convincing of the miraculous origin of the stars on her cope! These drawings are taken from "Las Estrellas del Manto de la Virgen de Guadalupe", by Fr. Mario Rojas Sánchez and Dr. Homero Hernández Illescas. Editor: Francisco Méndez Oteo, México 1983. Three constellations which appear together are shown direct (geocentric), inverted (heliocentric) and their rendering on Her cope.

Full recognizability is mantained without art loosing a pixel.

An astonishing piece of divine wisdom. A marvel! An assurance with insurance! For this to be understood let us begin with Genesis again. In the days of Creation we are presented with light being created on the first day, mornings, nights, evenings…and even grass, and herb yielding seed, trees bearing fruit on the third day of Creation. And then, on the fourth day, finally, the sun and moon are created by God! Is this an invitation to belief or to unbelief? From a purely human standpoint it's absurd! The first question would be: being so obvious why hasn't anybody made a correction to place the sun on the first day? It has remained there thousands of years, nobody seems to have asked for an explanation, nobody asked to what purpose it was written and mantained so!

Enter Islam. More than a billion Muslims have a right to the truth, but there is a monumental impediment that has kept them away from the truth, that will keep them forever away from religious truth: the Koran! Islam’s article of faith is that our forefathers altered the Bible! If the Bible were not altered, they say, it would be fully compatible with the Koran, and would have in prophesy a place, and what a great place for Muhammad! Well, our Muslim friends, here we offer you the indisputable truth that nobody dared alter the Bible in the least, the Word of God has been respected as such. For, if any alteration had taken place it would have been this very correction at the beginning of the Book! Case closed!That's assurance with insurance. And with the stars on her cope we have the same reasoning. Recently one of those groups that pop up with the first idiocy that comes to their mind came out with the theory that the stars were add-ons painted on the image in 1648! Independently of which year you choose add-ons will never show that magnificent trade-off between the required precision and artistry. If the idea in 1648 had been to credit a miracle, they would have painted with precision from a geocentric perspective, instead of disguising trough symmetry. They would have announced it immediately instead of working ineffectually! Liars always stumble cheaply in their very first steps, forgetting that all men, good and evil work to gain something in the short run, not foolishly hundreds of years later, and in so doing stand to be immediately challenged. And that the challenge must be attested by history or somebody will lose by default!

Here we have a horizontal take of the moment

With this fuller view we come to realize that if Corona had been on the ecliptic, and therefore not needing the adjustments made by Dr. Hernández Illezcas, THEN the landing of Regulus would not have the simultaneous crowning of Mary in the Zenith. Corona would have been way off! --All the way into Scorpius' head!

So it was that the skies held the apotheosis of poetry for 10:39 in that very same morning, - In this two sky charts you can see her crown next to the zenith, which is the top of the sky at the very same moment the Little King (Regulus) the heart of Leo (Genesis again) touches the horizon, or lands on this world: Christmas time from the solstice to December 25 is Mary's crowning on top of the heavens!

Whoever has read what could well be the sweetest dialogue in the history of literature, between the Holy Virgin and Juan Diego will find the stars in their Christmas poetry on par!

When the great Aquinas contemplated Mary Most Holy pregnant of Christ-God, he described Her greatness with the only word that comes to mind: Infinite! That St. Thomas was not given to exageration is a fact that here, the heavens confirm. It is as if Her Divine Pregnancy increased Her size to fill the Universe, so that the stars in the heavens, on Her magnification, impacted themselves on Her cope.
Two additional Bible quotations are essential: the first to link with "Genesis, as Science, Superb!": And I saw a new heaven and a new earth. For the first heaven and the first earth was gone, and the sea is now no more. (Rev. 21:1) refers to the future moment when the Rite of the Sun will be no more! It is, of course, after the Most Holy Virgin will have attained the final victory. After the Dragon, the Beast and the False Prophet have been thrown into the lake of fire (Rev. 20:10) Obviously, the moment the sea disappears, it will no longer cut the necessary figures we now see: the Red Sea representing the Serpent of Genesis 3:15; the Italian Boot of Child Jesus, Mother's Shoe with the long heel of Baja California, the second representation of the Serpent in Central America whose head is being crushed by Her. A new Heaven means no sun. So, the Rite of the Sun's daily promise will definitely have been fulfilled!
The second quotation addresses this blog on the stars: War from heaven was made against them, the stars remaining in their order and courses fought against Sisara. (Judges 5:20) And the stars remainingin their order and courses present before the world God's testimony, and will, against the new Sisara's. And the poetry of it! Alignment permitted all the constellations to be adjusted to her cope, a mantle yes, but also a cope with the advantage of the traditional meaning given to the celestial vault.Corona Borealis, the Crown fitted to Her forehead! On Her chest Virgo, the Virgin! She’s pregnant, so Leo with its direct reference to Genesis’ Lion of Judah! Leo with its head down like a baby to be born!Gemini upon her knees, two pillars to sustain the Church within her! Orion, the giant blinded by his enemy but ready to recover his sight by looking straight at the rising sun, and that Sun is The Lion of Judah whose splendor cloaks Her better that the stars themselves! It's dawn! around five! Juan Diego receives the Roses from her first miracle and trots down to the city to be first in the waiting line to see the bishop. He is received. He opens his poor-mans ayate and the roses fall to the ground. At that very moment two extraordinary things happen: In the skies Regulus, Leos heart and most brilliant star makes contact with the horizon: Regulus meaning little Rex (little King)! Christ’s birth! And her Crown is closest to the Zenith. The moment Christ is born, His mother is crowned Queen of Heaven!

Sheer poetry! Who else but God could have ordered that! And on Earth? What’s going on at that moment on Earth? Before the astonished bishop of México City, fray Juan de Zumárraga, suddenly, her image appears! An image that wasn‘t there when the roses fell for the third apparition to take place!

Her glorious Mexican Image!

And her outline on our map is a ship’s outline!The Ark! For She is the Ark, the Biblical Ark, and the Queen Mother sitting at the Right hand of Christ King in the Heavens. From a Biblical standpoint you’ll find Her role as Queen Mother of the King, and Ark of the New Covenant well researched in Scott Hahn’s “Hail, Holy Queen. The Mother of God in the Word of God”, Doubleday, 2001.And the fact that Megido=Mexico! Phonetically, not prophetically there is no doubt! The Ar means ‘high-place’, And Mexico City at 7000 feet of altitude is way above Israel. Armageddon? Much more can be said but, who needs it?
Bloged on the festivity of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 2006 in her town of Mexico City at 19:30 local time. A FINAL NOTE ON THE FOURTH DAY:

I believe the following has never been said but it fits: As a true book of origins, Genesis did not forget anything essential but rather codified it, thus fullfiling all expectations. As we will see from Gen. 1:26 in which God is announcing his Trinitarian Nature in creating His image (man) speaks in plural: And he said: Let us make man to our image and likeness:...The number fitting the us, and our, is three, the Trinity codified in the first three days of Creation as a separate entity within the continuum! Thus the skies on the fourth day, it's two different sets being announced. In my next blog the trinitarian nature of man will be established. But first, where did the light in the first three days come from? Revelation, coded in Genesis proves as follows: And the city hath no need of the sun, nor of the moon, to shine in it. For the glory of God hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof.(Revelation 21:23) After all, God who is the source of the sun and of all stars is also the source of all photons.

In this way, Genesis is also linking the New and Final Era established by Gen 3:15, in which both lights from the Fourth Day will shine humanly and divinely: The Woman, Mary Most Holy as the Moon; Jesus Christ, The Son the sun! From Genesis both eras are thus established BC and AD, Before Christ and after Christ!
All this, of course, is in the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe!

In other words: From a cosmological standpoint things ARE AS THE BIBLE SAYS, AND MORE!*******************************More on the 12 stars on Her head of Revelation 12:1Is Our Lady of Guadalupe the Marian Advocacy fulfilling the Apocalypse? To some, the solution of the 12 signs of the Zodiac pointing to Her cope was somehow insufficient; they ask for something more Biblically significant. OK, But they that are learned shall shine as the brightness of the firmament: and they that instruct many to justice, as stars for all eternity. (Daniel 12:3) And they were known precisely as the Twelve Apostles, they were the Franciscan Friars, the evangelizers who arrived on May 13th 1524 to Mexico. Their names:

Fray Martín de ValenciaFray Francisco SotoFray Martín de la CoruñaFray Juan XuárezFray Antonio de Ciudad RodrigoFray Toribio de Benavente (Motolinía)Fray García de CisnerosFray Luis de FuensalidaFray Juan de RivasFray Francisco JiménezFray Andrés de CórdobaFray Juan de Palos
And they began their work, learning the language and preaching The Gospel to the natives. Twelve learned in the ways of the Gospel. Twelve which instructed many to justice. It was from their lips that the Indians first learnt the name of Mary Most Holy. Twelve stars around Her head. Quite fitting, as by head we also mean knowledge, so, an additional explanation which takes nothing from the first is most welcome.